Jin Akutsu
Akutsu Jin is a player from Yamabuki Middle School. Background Although his rigid posture may suggest otherwise, but Akutsu is a natural at tennis, never having to practice to reach his current level. His greatest asset is the ability to change his movements instantaneously. Unfortunately for Yamabuki, Akutsu quit his school tennis club following his defeat to Echizen Ryoma because he felt satisfied with tennis after their match. Akutsu is a smoker and his 33-year-old mother Yuuki had him when she was in her teens. Akutsu develops a rivalry with Ryoma Echizen, but later helps him develop his skills. Appearance Akutsu its is notably tall for a Middle Schooler. He has grayish-silvery hair and amber eyes. His skin colour is also considerably pale. Personality In striking contrast to his former karate classmate Kawamura, Akutsu is very violent, stirring up trouble wherever he goes. Akutsu plays tennis violently and is widely known around Tokyo as a young bully. Students at both Seigaku and Ginka have been his victims. Despite his bullying, he does have a sense of honor (no matter how skewed it may be) as shown when he rips up the data Dan Taichi had given him on Echizen Ryoma and calling the scouting to be shameful. He is closely followed by Dan Taichi, his first-year manager. Dan is the only person who is not scared of Akutsu. He then made a surprise appearance at Kawamura's last tennis match to support his friend, showing the closeness between the two. Despite his arrogant personality, Akutsu is willing to take advice from other people, as seen in his match with Ryoma when he decided to take his coach's advice to change the tempo of his shots. He is also shown to be soft at times, as demonstrated with Dan Taichi and his mother. Dan Taichi's signature headband was given to him by Akutsu. Despite initially ripping up the invitation for the All-Japan Junior Training Camp, he decides to accept it after seeing that his mother went through the trouble of putting the pieces back together. It is revealed in a Pair Puri that Akutsu began to get back into tennis after the nationals as while talkin with close friend Kawamura in a cafe, he has his racket case with him. It is revealed that he was secretly training with Dan. History Akutsu was known and feared amongst Tokyo schools as a bully. However he was close friends with Kawamura Takashi due to attending the same Karate class as children. He played tennis to make others lose and never really cared for the sport at all. He never practiced to reach the high level he was at. He was eventually persuaded by Coach Banda of Yamabuki Middle School to actually be a member of the school Tennis club. He annihalated his opponents effortlessly while a member of the club until he met Echizen Ryoma. Image3.jpg|Akutsu returning Echizen's ball|link=Akutsu serving against Echizen Image2.jpg|Akutsu serving against Echizen|link=Akutsu about to drop shot against Echizen Image1.jpg|Akutsu about to drop shot against Echizen|link=Akutsu returning Echizen's twist serve Image123.jpg|Akutsu returning Echizen's twist serve Tokyo Prefecturals Akutsu makes his first notable appearance just before the matches between Fudomine and Yamabuki begin. He organized an accident that caused several of the Fudomine players to get injured prior to their arrival at the tennis court. After the Fudomine captain Kippei Tachibana realized this, he chose to forfeit the matches and take his teammates to the hospital to receive proper treatment. Yamabuki and Seigaku meet in the Tokyo Prefectural Final. Akutsu plays in Singles 2 against Echizen Ryoma and the two engage in a long fierce match. Echizen eventually wins which results in Akutsu quitting the tennis club claiming he is satisfied with tennis. Nationals Akutsu appears during Kawamura's Singles 2 match in the Semi-Final between Shitenhoji and Seigaku against Ishida Gin. Akutsu arrives to give Kawamura support and encouragement which aids Kawamura. Kawamura is blown to the stands by Ishida Gin's Hadoukyu, and Akutsu catches him and tells him not to give up. Afterwards Kawamura dramatically wins the match. Prior To U-17 Camp After the Nationals, it is revealed that Akutsu has not actually completely dropped playing tennis like he said he would and actually practices regularly with freshman teammate Dan Taichi. On the way from practicing, the two bump into some local thugs who appear to bullying someone. As they get closer they realize the one being bullied is in fact Kirihara Akaya. Akutsu confronts the bullies who after recognizing who Akutsu was, cower away in fear and leave Kirihara alone. Kirihara thanks them afterwards. Shortly after this, Akutsu recieves an invite to the All-Japan Junior Training Camp as he is given the letter by his mother. Akutsu upon recieving it angrily rips it up. However as he gets home later on, he notices it had been pieced back together by his mother. Out of kindness for his mother, he decides to accept the invitation to the camp. U-17 Camp Several players from Yamabuki, Rokkaku.png Atobe and Akutsu in 2nd Stringer U-17 Camp uniform white.jpg Akutsu in the U-17 Camp locker room.jpg Akutsu annoyed during the Team Shuffle of the U-17 Camp.png|Akutsu after talking Oni about not getting picked. Akutsu is invited to the U-17 Camp along with his Yamabuki teammates Sengoku Kiyosumi, Minami Kentaro and Higashikata Masami and several other Middle Schoolers. Upon arrival, the middle schoolers gather together. A helicopter suddenly drops tennis balls on the floor. The head coach then announces that all players unable to obtain a ball must leave the camp. All middle schoolers are able to obtain a ball. Several Middle schoolers are challenged for their balls by High Schoolers as some middle schoolers greedily went over the top and took several balls for themselves. However Irie Kanata arrives with Oni Juujiro and Tokugawa Kazuya and Irie warns all private matches to stop as they are prohibited within the camp. Upon leaving the court, Oni barges into Akutsu, Akutsu unlike the rest of the middle schoolers lacked any fear towards Oni unlike most of the camp and swears at him for doing so causing Kawamura to prevent an argument from brewing. Later on in the day, the Mental Coach arrives and requests all middle schoolers pair up. He then suddenly declares all pairs must play a quick tie-break game where the loser must go home. Akutsu defeats Kawamura Takashi in a tiebreaker-format match with a score of 7-1, allowing him to advance to play the high schoolers. He defeats his first high school opponent and it is revealed in Pair Puri Vol.4 that he wins his place in the 8th Court and is joined by fellow Middle Schoolers Fuji Shusuke, Chinen Hiroshi, Oshitari Yuushi, Kite Eishiro and Amane Hikaru however and some other Middle Schoolers are later put forward for another Shuffle match and wins this and gains his place in the 5th Court along with Tachibana Kippei, Shiraishi Kuranosuke, Tezuka Kunimitsu, Atobe Keigo, Ishida Gin, Akutagawa Jiro, Kite Eishirō Kirihara Akaya and Liliadent Krauser. Since all the middle schoolers that won their tie-breaks win their shuffle matches, it results in all members of the 6th Court and 5th Court being Middle Schoolers except for Oni Juujiro The Gate Keeper who is known for staying in the 5th Court to strengthen the lower courts. Oni decides to request the 5th Court be put forward for a Team Shuffle where the winning team replaces the losing team regardless of the players that lost. Akutsu requests that Oni selects the players that should play against the 3rd Court. However, Akutsu is somewhat angry after finding out that he was not chosen. Due to Irie Kanata allowing his encounter with Atobe in Singles 1 of the Team Shuffle be a draw for his own amusement, it allows the reserve game to take place. Oni surprisingly takes part in the reserve role despite Akutsu initally wanting to and crushes the 3rd Court's Takei Toshio. Making the 5th Court replace the 3rd Court which results in Akutsu becoming a member of the 3rd Court. Later on, Akutsu is present with the rest of the camp later on when the Top 10 arrive at the main courts and witness the shock upset that No.s 11-19 were defeated and replaced by Middle Schoolers. Akutsu later heads to the Camp's library to return Sengoku's book, however while there he and Ohmagari Ryuuji the No.6 at this time have a violent confrontation. When the middle schoolers take on the Top 10, Akutsu is present. Once Akutsu spot Ryoga and Ryoma leaving the courts before Kintaro's match with Oni, he follows them to challenge Ryoma. Akutsu has no interest in becoming an All Japan Representative and that he only wants to play Ryoma for revenge. When Ryoma declines, Ryoga offers to play him instead. Akutsu throws what appears to be 10 balls at him, but Ryoga uses his clone technique to dodge them all. They begin to play with 10 balls, and Akutsu able to hit them all with ease before Ryoga uses Byoudouin Houou's techique to hit the ball with incredible force. The ball has shockwaves powerful enough to wreck the wall of the building behind Akutsu, and likely would have sent him hurling as Byoudouin managed to do to Tokugawa had Ryoma not stepped in. As it were, Ryoma pushed Akutsu aside to take Ryoga's shot, but is unable to fully return it, and his racket falls out of his hand. Sanada Genichiro then appears to tell Akutsu that he is playing Doubles with him in the next match. Tennis Record Official Middle School Tournaments Playing Style and Techniques Akutsu is an Aggressive Baseliner. He originally did not bother to use defensive techniques, as his naturally flexible and powerful muscles have allowed him to attack with using any form in any position. He can even slide in any surface and can seem like he appeared at the net all of a sudden. Akutsu is stated to be able to hit an attacking shot from any physical position. However, that only made him as a good player, and he still was a person who could be surpassed. After realizing this during the match against Ryoma, he started to use more defensive techniques, such as lobs and drop shots. After his loss, he went to train at America and returned to the U-17 with amazing results, defeating Kawamura Takashi by only losing 1 point. Personal Information *Mother's occupation: Waitress (Cafe) *Astrological Sign: Aries *Height: 183cm *Weight: 71kg *Blood Type: B *Shoes: DUNLOP / PRS-479 *Racket: Head / i, S18 chipsystem *Favorite Food: Chestnut cake *Hobby: When asked, he answers "How's there such a thing?", actually its speed racing *Favorite Subject: Physical Education *Favorite Color: Silver *Preferred type: Girls who look good with lipstick Trivia *Due to American censorship, in the anime Akutsu's underage smoking was replaced with a toothpick. *He is the oldest middle schooler to be shown. Category:Characters Category:Tennis Player Category:Yamabuki Tennis Club Member Category:U-17 Camp Category:Middle Schooler Category:3rd Year Middle School Category:Aggressive Baseliner Category:Right-Handed Category:Tokyo Players Category:Kanto Players Category:2nd Stringers